Fighting In The NHL

The NHL strike is finally over and the teams are back to playing hockey with an abbreviated 48 game season. The shortened season seems to have placed a greater sense of urgency at the beginning of the season because teams cannot afford to get too far behind. This has caused more fighting majors at the beginning of the season as most teams are out to make a statement. I was watching the Rangers-Maple Leafs game the other night and the announcer made the comment that every team in the Eastern Conference had at least one tough guy on the team now. The Carolina Hurricanes went out and traded for Kevin Westgarth of the Los Angeles Kings to add to Tim Gleason. Gleason is a stand up guy and will stick up for his teammates but he didn't exactly strike fear into the hearts of the other team. When I first started watching hockey, I was attracted to the fighting as most casual fans are. However, the more I watched it, the more I began to realize what a beautiful, fluid sport hockey is with some amazing athletes. There is also a time to drop the gloves and a time to skate away. The Carolina Hurricanes and Buffalo Sabres were tied 0-0 about halfway thru the second period and John Scott of the Sabres tried drawing Kevin Westgarth of the Hurricanes into a fight. The Hurricanes announcer quickly pointed out that Westgarth had no reason to drop the gloves because it would only serve to get the crowd into the game (the game was in Buffalo) and fire up the Sabres and may have the adverse effect on the Hurricanes.

NHL 12

I bought my copy of NHL 12 the day after it came out. The mountains of Western North Carolina are not exactly a hot bed of hockey and we usually do not get that EA series in until after it has been out for about a week.

I love my sports games to be as realistic as possible. That is one of the reasons that I have always enjoyed the EA Sports hockey franchise. When they included the AHL,CHL and the European Leagues last year, that just put the game over the top in my opinion. NHL 12 is no different.

I always start a franchise in the "Be A GM" mode and this year I decided to stay with the hometown team, the Carolina Hurricanes. I usually pick the Philadelphia Flyers. The Hurricanes have alot of good, young talent and a great goalie in Cam Ward.

I naturally went out and lost the first game I played, 3-2 in OT to the Winnipeg Jets. I gave up 2 goals in the last two minutes and then the OT game winner 2 minutes into OT. I was hooked. The game does so many things, I still have not figured them all out yet but I am working on it.

The only thing that the game did that I did not like was that it froze up on me. I read somewhere on the internet that someone else had said they thought it froze up more often than normal. I am a stats freak and I hate getting about halfway thru a great game and then losing everything like that. All of the positives far outweigh that one negative.

So Many Sporting Events, So Little Time, and Only One TV

There was alot going on this weekend in the sporting world. The end of the regular season in hockey and pro basketball, the Masters, great rivalries going on in Major League Baseball, and minor league baseball getting cranked up.

I got on one of my favorite sports websites, hockeyfights.com, just a few minutes ago and was surprised to see that prolific goal scorer Teemu Selanne had picked up his first fighting major of his 18 year career. I watched the highlights of it and he gave a pretty good account of himself. The Chicago Blackhawks locked up the 16th and final playoff spot today but they backed in when the Dallas Stars lost. I watched the Carolina Hurricanes go in the tank last night in their opportunity to lock up the 8th seed so they will be watching from home.

I even watched a little bit of the Masters today which I hardly ever do but for whatever reason it piqued my interest. I thought the man that won it, Charl Schwartzel, was a major butthead. Before he put it on the green on the 18th hole he asked a camerman to back up several paces. It wasn't like the guy was standing close enough to get in the way of his shot. I think golf fans should be allowed to raise all sorts of hell when a player is trying to putt. If a batter can concentrate well enough to hit a 90 MPH fastball, then a golfer should be able to concentrate well enough to hit a 20 foot putt.

I have found myself watching alot of baseball this spring. The Cubs-Brewers, Phillies-Braves, and Yankees-Red Sox were all on this weekend and I caught a little bit of all of it. I am sick and tired of seeing the Yankees on TV or anywhere else for that matter but its a great rivalry and its still baseball.